Purgatory! Not our best day so far! It all started with a wonderful breakfast that was taken inside because even at 08:00 it was too hot outside. We set off and soon left the Heritage-listed town behind but with a slightly unexpected degree of climbing. We elected to take the allegedly more scenic south route which added 11 km to the day's ride, and whilst all very pretty as we rode through fields of maize, sunflower and asparagus it did involve a lot of climbing. Now, 530m in around 45 miles is normally pretty small beer, but when a lot of it is on rough gravel track through woods at over 32C in the shade, carrying the weight we are lugging, it takes on a different dimension! Accuweather predicted a 'real feel' temperature of 38C, and this felt more than reasonable. At times it was as though a fan heater was blowing on us with occasional opening of the oven door! Periodic intervals of smooth Tarmac upped the pace, but amplified the heat. The one high point (literally) of the trip was seeing the Rhine Falls ( biggest waterfall in Europe by volume flow) but you couldn't get a proper look without buying an entrance ticket ... which we didn't. It was a real tourist trap! A lunch stop of bakery-bought pretzel sandwiches was taken in a shady spot by the river, and the calories were needed for the hot climbs (I burned 3637 today). The gasthof we were staying at was reached with considerable relief until we found that the restaurant was closed on Thursday; you weren't allowed to bring food back to eat; and the bar closed at 7pm so we couldn't get a drink after our evening stroll! We went across the road for a pizza, waited an eternity in steaming heat, alone in the pizzeria, and found that they had only fired up the oven when I placed my order. At this Anne finally lost it! She demanded a free second beer each , and got it! The salad and calzone, when eventually it came, were delicious! A free beer at Swiss prices is s real score! Shame we couldn't bring it over to the beautiful enclosed courtyard of the gasthof.
At least it should be 5deg cooler tomorrow.
73.6 km; 15.8 kph avg; 04:38 moving time; 532m ascent
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